Playbillarts
Rolando Villazón, whose struggle with health problems obliged him to cancel a series of major appearances this summer and fall, has withdrawn from all of his engagements at least through the end of 2007.
The Metropolitan Opera announced yesterday afternoon that, due to illness, the 35-year-old tenor will be unable to make his December appearances as Romeo (opposite Anna Netrebko, his frequent onstage partner) in Gounod's Roméo et Juliette; he had cancelled his September and October dates in the role last month. (The company announced another withdrawal from the seemingly ill-fated production only this morning.)
Just as the Met's statement went out, Carnegie Hall released the news that Villazón has, "with great regret," postponed his Carnegie Hall recital debut on December 10. A rescheduled date for the concert will be announced at a later time.
This morning the Royal Opera House in London confirmed that Villazón won't be appearing in the new production of Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore in November or in the company's fall gala concert on November 15. (No replacement has been announced, though tenor Stefano Secco, already scheduled to make his Covent Garden debut in the run's performances on November 19 and 24, could well be asked to fill in for his colleague.)
Alan Green, Villazón's manager, told The New York Times that the timing of the tenor's return to the stage is "difficult to pin down right now ... I would hazard to guess certainly early in the new year." Villazón's engagements for January 2008 include six performances at the Vienna State Opera, three each as Massenet's Werther and as Des Grieux in Massenet's Manon, as well as recitals at the Liceu in Barcelona and the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris. According to those venues' respective websites, he currently remains on the schedule for all of those performances.
Asked about the nature of Villazón's health problems, Green told the Times, "I can't say more than that. Health reasons, period."
Y Kaufmann, va por el mismo camino
Yo tampoco, estoy siempre igual 
Martti Talvela 
